John Roderick will explain every single aspect of being a singer/songwriter and recording artist, including, but not limited to:

How to be a musician when you're not that good of a musician.How to keep writing when everything you write is boring and terrible.How to completely rewrite songs you thought were finished.How to maintain some semblance of dignity in a shameful world.How to find the coconut of an idea in a sea of cliches.How to, when all else fails, become a colorful personality.

Topics NOT included include:

How to get your demo to Barsuk Records.How to find a manager.How to get a major-label recording contract.How to write a radio hit.

if i pay $30 he better entertain me dammit! actually i'm wondering if someone like me, who has no desire to ever write a song, wound up going, would i be taking away from someone who was there to possibly learn something? or can i just go to listen to john speak soothingly for however long? btw...i wouldn't really go, for $30 i want some singing and guitar playing to happen. and maybe a little skin.

A Brutaful Smile wrote:if i pay $30 he better entertain me dammit! actually i'm wondering if someone like me, who has no desire to ever write a song, wound up going, would i be taking away from someone who was there to possibly learn something? or can i just go to listen to john speak soothingly for however long? btw...i wouldn't really go, for $30 i want some singing and guitar playing to happen. and maybe a little skin.

I've also thought that I might take a spot away from someone who really wanted to get some tips...my main motivation to go would be for the entertainment and for 100% of that $30 to go towards 826 Seattle. I think I'm gonna get a ticket but if the event sells out, offer it on Craigslist to someone who is looking for more than entertainment...

John RoderickJohn Roderick labored in local semi-obscurity for ten years in a succession of good bands that went nowhere. Undaunted, he kept playing music until he rose to the level of national, and then international semi-obscurity. As frontman of The Long Winters he has done almost everything you can do in rock music, short of becoming rich and famous. He's currently working on a new record.

I've never understood the whole, "For $XX, they better _______!" mentality before making a ticket purchase.

To go into something primed with that kind of attitude seems to me to be a setup for disappointment. It's up to the performer to determine what you get. You're just paying for the chance to see something special, but it's never a guarantee, and the value of that experience is highly subjective.

Eerily, the whole tub thing is now stuck in my head. How big are the chances that the band will take a tub on tour with them, as a stage prop? It could be a sort of indie rock equivalent of the heavy metal blow-up doll.

Liesbeth wrote:Eerily, the whole tub thing is now stuck in my head. How big are the chances that the band will take a tub on tour with them, as a stage prop? It could be a sort of indie rock equivalent of the heavy metal blow-up doll.

I had hoped someone else would review this because I didn't take any notes and there was quite a bit of discussion. Here's a few random things I remember:

John talked a lot about he deliberately tries to make his songs not be conventional, like adding a pre-chorus before the chorus that you weren't expecting. The song may start conventional but in the studio he deconstructs and reconstructs the song. He also talked about trying to have the chords and melody cycle with different frequencies to add interest. He actively tries to avoid cliches in his writing. In response to a question he replied that "flying high in the sky" was probably his most hated cliche and that's why he can't listen to Lenny Kravitz.

The music for the new album has been recorded. John's now working on the trying to write lyrics to fit the music. Since this isn't how he usually works he's struggling.

I talked to him a little afterwards. I once read somewhere that he doesn't listen to music very much and I asked him about that. He explained that when he listens to music he really just sits and listens to music. He doesn't really have it on in the background. Mostly he knows music by going to see bands live. I was a little surprised about how analytically he approached song structure so I asked him if he tends to analyze other people's songs when he listens to them. He admitted that he does do that. I described it as a side effect of being a songwriter.

This may have already been discussed somewhere on the board but I had never heard the story about the song Cinnamon. When he wrote the song he envisioned two lovers in the 70's, involved with the Red Brigade. The man is captured by the Stasi (spelling?) and the woman gets away. Under interrogation about the woman all he'll say is "her skin is cinnamon". He talked about telling people this story and getting blank looks because they were sure they knew what the song was about and that wasn't what they were expecting.

Afterwards John mentioned that he's been asked to sit on one of the panels at the Pop Music Conference that EMP runs in April. I'll be curious to see what the topic is.

The talk was filmed so maybe some of it will end up in the documentary. Laura Musselman took some photos that I saw are up in Flickr.

pahouk wrote:When he wrote the song he envisioned two lovers in the 70's, involved with the Red Brigade. The man is captured by the Stasi (spelling?) and the woman gets away. Under interrogation about the woman all he'll say is "her skin is cinnamon".